The sinologist life
By Grace
Photos by Chen Lixin



Dressed in close-fitting exercise clothes, Oliver Levi reveals his strong and vigorous muscles. Wearing a deep-blue kerchief on his head, he appears striking and energetic on his familiar stage.

"Five, four, three, two, come on!" With resonating and inspirational words, he leads his students on their way to better health.

Every night, in a fitness center in Xiamen, you will see this popular six-foot tall foreign coach with his photogenic looks and youthful enthusiasm, speaking fluent Chinese.

Rhythmic and fantastic music is his close colleague; large bright mirrors on the wall are his sincere audience. "I like this job, I like teaching!" said Oliver with a charming smile.

Sports Enthusiast

Born in Rotterdam, Holland in 1977 - home to the tulip and windmill, Oliver Levi took a liking to sports at an early age, and at sixteen went to LA, USA and worked as a lifeguard at the beach. In order to become a physically qualified coach, he attended physical education classes in his spare time.

Two years later, Oliver went back to Europe and started his four-year university study. He won a scholarship to study Chinese in Taiwan from 1999 to 2001.

In September 2002, Oliver arrived in Xiamen and immersed himself in the gym regime.

As an over-active boy, Oliver was always out in his childhood and never at home. "I was always black and blue all over my body. So from an early age, I was interested in the human body," he recalled.

Later, through two years of lifeguard experience at the beach in the USA, he learned how the body functions, and how to exercise. Physical education classes enabled him to master professional fitness and nutrition knowledge.

As a professional fitness teacher, Oliver knows the human body very well. "Every kind of exercise has its special goal." However, he is well aware of the risks of injury involved when exercising. "A professional instructor should know."

Now, Oliver is instructing RPM (a kind of spinning), Body Pump, Latin dancing, AB (abdomen) attack and aerobics. Apart from on-the-spot instruction, he also makes fitness schedules and gives advice to individual gym members. "You can only lose a little bit of weight by exercise. To stay in exceptional shape, you should also pay attention to your diet." He added.

"A good teacher is not only performing, he or she has to try to make everybody happy, " Oliver pointed out. "People work hard in the daytime, and they come to gyms to forget about stress."
Creating the correct atmosphere, in his viewpoint, is so important for fitness classes. "Talking about atmosphere, the coach plays a decisive role," Oliver said. With his own teaching style, Oliver creates wonders, and relaxes his students.

Sinologist

In the evening, Oliver is active on the stage in the gym. In the daytime, he shuttles between government and other gyms researching China's fitness field.

Acquisition of good Chinese pulls down the language barrier for him. People are always surprised at his fluent Chinese. Whenever praised by others, Oliver always answers in a modest way, "My Chinese is average."

How did Oliver become a "sinologist"?

At five, one of his neighbors was Chinese. "I played with their kids and found that they spoke with their parents in another language," recalled Oliver. "And in Chinese restaurants, I found many Chinese characters that I really wanted to understand"

Fascinated by Chinese culture, he took Chinese as his major in 1997. Stimulated by his parents, Oliver immersed himself in Chinese culture. His first two-years of study in Europe laid a solid foundation for his further study in China.

In his view, the best way to study a foreign language is to go to the country where the language is spoken. So when he was a junior, he seized the chance to go to Taiwan for a scholarship. "Don't stay inside. Don't just read the books. Open your mouth," he said. "If you have a chance to go abroad, you'll make huge progress."

Due to regular practice, Oliver can communicate in Chinese without any problems now. The "sinologist" has made many Chinese friends. "Oliver's oral Chinese is so fluent that you won't realize he is a foreigner, " one of his friends said.

Xiamen - Lover

Graduating from university in 2002, Oliver came to Xiamen - his first stop in mainland China. Having been in Taiwan for two years, he adapted to the life in Xiamen well.

"Xiamen is one of the cleanest cities in China with no air pollution and nice nature," said Oliver. "The nice beaches make the city even more charming."

"Moreover, Xiamen residents are easy-going. The whole picture of Xiamen makes it such a good place to live in that I feel more relaxed here than in larger cities." Oliver said happily.
"Larger cities are good for fun, but smaller ones are good for living, and for your children's future." Having traveled to large cities, such as Los Angeles, Taipei, Beijing and Harbin, Oliver has fallen in love with Xiamen - the beautiful island.

What amazes Oliver more is the rapid development of the fitness field in Xiamen. "It's developing really fast. The way people think of exercise has been moving rapidly from traditional Tai Chi and martial arts to shaping up in a gym over the past few years." Oliver remarked.

Through daily research, he found that nowadays there are more than thirty sizable gyms in Xiamen, while no gyms could be found eight years ago. "More and more popular gyms are opening, which shows that the fitness-related field is booming. That is why I convinced one of the biggest gyms in Europe to come to Xiamen to open a gym here, which will be opened soon!"

In the past ten years, Oliver has traveled here and there outside of his hometown.
This energetic fitness coach prefers to be considered as "a sociable person". Enjoying communication with people, he thinks, home for him, is not where he was born, but where the people he loves are located.

"Now, I'm enjoying life here very much. If I meet my Chinese wife here, I would like to settle down in Xiamen," said Oliver in a humorous way, again with his charming smile.

My Xiamen
我的厦门



Wang Hailong is a programmer working in Xiamen who considers himself a simple man.

1. How long have you been in Xiamen?
I have been here for one and a half years.

2. What do you like best about life here?
The beautiful environment. I like the mountains and the sea.

3. What's your job here? How do you like your job?
I am a programmer in a software company. As for liking the job or not, it's just so-so.

4. How do you spend your spare time in Xiamen?
I enjoy climbing mountains, walking by or swimming in the sea and reading books.

5. If there was one thing that you could change about Xiamen, what would that be?
Some land lords are really difficult to deal with. I wish I would never have to rent a house.

6. What's your favorite restaurant?
I seldom go to restaurants.

7. Compared with other big cities in China, what do you think are the differences between Xiamen and them?
Xiamen is the best, in my view. Xiamen has the best environment, and has the lowest living cost.

8. What's the last great book you read?
The Bible.

9. What's your favorite quotation or piece of advice?
If a man is not bad, women will not love him. If a man has money, he will become bad; if a woman becomes bad, she will have money.